A current limitation of electromagnetic telemetry remote sensing systems is that signal amplitude received at surface can be small with respect to electrical noise picked up by the stakes or other equipment that serve as electrodes. Hence, under high noise conditions, the signal received is often corrupted, and consequently the demodulation and decoding result in erroneous or missing information.
A second limitation is the fact that the field crew must nail down a set of electrode rods deep in the ground for every rig and several hundred feet of wire must be run from these stakes to a data acquisition system, typically located in a shack near the rig. Worse yet, the setup frequently involves routing wires through roads, local rig vehicle traffic, fences etc. . . . and is time consuming, requiring testing for proper ground connection each time and complicated logistics, provides an increased safety risk exposure and can lead to cable damage and unexpected failures.
A need exists, therefore, for reliable sensing of EM signals in environments where the EM signal may be small and the noise level high, and the burden of hard wiring and complicated installation logistics are omitted.